UNDERGROUND COMICS

 

            The 1960s saw a new breed of comic book, one that was not directed at children but at a definite adult audience. These titles concentrated on specifically adult themes: notably sex, drugs and radical politics. These titles both reflected and transmitted the counter-cultural message and were satirical and revolutionary. Produced outside the commercial mainstream, they were often called “comix” (sometimes “komix”) both in contra-distinction to their straight counterpart and to denote their “x-rated” content. However, they were not “underground” in the sense that they were produced clandestinely under conditions of totalitarianism, and always included the name and address of the publisher on the inside cover. (Sabin, 36) They had, instead, different production and distribution channels than regular comics. They were printed and produced by a variety of small presses and cooperative ventures.  Creators retained the copyright for their materials, something that mainstream creators could not do at the time. Instead of being sold at newsstands, underground comix were sold mostly through a loose network of record stores, alternative bookstores and head shops. (Rogers, 62)

 

Besides the much-heralded innovations in popular music, the most influential and distinctive artistic achievements of the 1960s counterculture were the uninhibited and socially defiant underground comic books, which distinguished themselves from their code-approved counterparts by adopting the soubriquet “comix.” . . . They were a crucial phase in the development of sequential art as a means of artistic expression, and the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and 1970s formed the matrix from which emerged in the 1980s comic books that, unlike the iconoclastic commix, made a new and unprecedented bid for acceptance as literature . . .  They were the first significant group of comic books in America aimed at an entirely adult audience, and the commix proved to a whole generation of readers who had been raised on the vapid Code-approved comics that the sequential art medium is a powerful narrative form capable of enormous range and flexibility. (Witek, 52)

 

            The first widely available title was Zap, first published in 1967 in San Francisco by Robert Crumb. It introduced characters that became counter-cultural icons such as: ‘Whiteman’ (an uptight, racist, pillar of the establishment) and ‘Mr. Natural’ (a misanthropic, capitalistic guru, a satire on the love generation and “a cipher for the intellectual conundrum ‘how do you ‘teach’ wisdom?” (Sabin, 37)

In 1970, the first comic devoted to women’s liberation appeared. It Ain’t Me, Babe  was followed by the better-known Wimmins Comix line in 1972. Both were a direct feminist response to what was seen as the profound sexism present in many of the existing undergrounds (particularly the work of Crumb, Wilson and Spain), and provided a valuable platform for new female talent. (Sabin, 41)

Comix publishers were not competing with mainstream publishers since they were going for an entirely different readership. This is why they were able to so easily ignore the Comics Code. (Sabin, 41) The economics of the underground were an entirely different character to the mainstream comics industry, and, as Sabin points out, this had a value above the purely practical: it gave creators a pride in what they were doing, and inspired original, self-motivated work. (Sabin, 45) The underground artists who grew up with comic books had found the format to be the perfect medium to express their defiance of social norms. “What better way to demonstrate their disdain of conservative taste than to pervert what the public perceived as children’s entertainment?” (Nyberg, 138)

            Nyberg claims that these comics were important to the mainstream comic book industry in three ways.

1.        They demonstrated that there was a market for adult comics.

2.       The retail network developed for distribution was an important precursor to changes in the way more mainstream comics were distributed in the 1980s.

3.       Some underground artists went on to make a name for themselves with the new mainstream adult comics that were to emerge in the 1980s. (Nyberg, 138)

 

THE DECLINE OF THE UNDERGROUND INDUSTRY

The decline of the underground is essentially the story of the decline of the counter-culture. There were three main reasons that applied in both Britain and America:

v      The backlash from “straight” society,

v      The fracturing and co-option of alternative society and

v      The rise of new kinds of adult comics. (Sabin, 46)

 

In retrospect, the comix were bound to provoke a hostile reaction for two reasons: because they were an integral part of the counter-culture and thus a conduit for anti-establishment ideas; and because they subverted what was considered “by nature” a childish form. . . . The mainstream press was the first to go on the offensive. The underground was a story begging to be sensationalized, and duly shock articles began to appear about “the American sex-comics”. They were characterized as pornographic, perverted and generally beyond the pale, though usually very little attempt was made to explain why. (Sabin, 47)

 

In the United States, the chief unifying element for the old hippie consensus ended when, in 1973, America withdrew from the Vietnam War. This also heralded the end of the underground commix. However, influences and creative forces from the era still formulate much of what is happening in the world of comics today.

 

Mark Rogers quotes Amy Kiste Nyberg in citing three basic reasons that underground comix were important to the mainstream comic book industry. These are the same three reasons why we are looking at this genre of comics as well.

1. They demonstrated that there was a market for adult comics.
2. The retail network developed for distribution would be an important precursor to changes in the way more mainstream comics were distributed in the 1980s. “By showing that comics could be sold to an already interested audience through outlets other than newsstands, underground comix created an example that the direct sales market would soon emulate. Furthermore, many of the head shops would become the comic book stores of the late 1970s and early 1980s.” (Rogers, 62)
3. Some underground artists would go on to make a name for themselves with the new mainstream adult comics that would emerge in the 1980s. (Rogers, 62)